Inoffensive

This morning it took a long time for me to wake up enough to get up so I was very grateful  there was no rush to do so for anything in particular. When I did finally stir however I gave thanks for remembering the lovely rye mix bread I bought yesterday and that I love raw garlic and date sandwiches. No, not together (that would be weird!) but one after another of course!
I'm grateful I did the mound of washing up, and then made stew and crumble for tea and some tasty pastries for lunch before settling down for an afternoon of snoozing with a heavenly Devonly scenic Poirot, some simple knitting and a snuggly throw... So I wasn't really grateful at first at all when Laura said she was unexpectedly free for an hour or two if I'd like her to come and finish the bathroom door, and I had to get things moved about...including me! I gave thanks for her company though...and for the work done and for plans for more. And when she'd gone and I was ready to drop from tiredness I was even more grateful than ever for all the food waiting for eating!
I give thanks for finding out about these splendid folk, their ideas and actions...
http://thekindnessoffensive.com/
And for planning ahead and preparing a creepy picture for Halloween...

Dark and light

Earlier this week I was happy to read that more 'new' creatures had been found. I give thanks for these reports on many levels but mostly all of them come back to the fact that, despite our efforts to understand the world by counting and categorising things, there's always far more we don't know than that we know we don't! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/10408499/Scientists-discover-new-species-in-Lost-World-in-Australia.html

Talking of Australia, I dedicate the wondrousness of all there is to yet be known to Juanita who is no longer here to talk to about such things with me. You can make friendships for life in a cancer chat room but that doesn't mean they'll last for long. I'm grateful I 'met' you and I won't forget you, all love to those with a hole in their lives where you were...

Last night I was grateful that I got up to open the window a crack, as if I hadn't I wouldn't have seen all the bright stars between the clouds. So bright I could see them without my specs on...though I reached for them in order to see them better anyway! I'm grateful for the dark sky above the unstreetlit sea...

At lunchtime I have thanks for a lift down town and thus the opportunity to go and do some necessary things with a tad less effort than usual.

I gave thanks for my bus pass, I gave thanks for my legs
For getting some bread and getting some eggs...
I gave thanks for sun gold filling shopkeepers' coffers
And chocolate still being on Smith's special offers!
For the sight of bright smiles and sea and the coast
And good natured people...they please me the most.
I gave thanks for dozing the pm away
With Catfish and crumpets and lots of Earl Grey...

Big softie

Brrr, it's a bit nippy tonight...maybe I should leave my hat on? I give lots of thanks for my hat!
Mostly all I’ve wanted to do in waking hours the last few days is sit on the sofa and knit, so I’ve been very grateful for all the time that attending to other tasks and my general feebleness have permitted this. It's been an unusual project for me being neither very small and quick, nor large and complicated, using just one yarn and actually pretty much following a pattern for once, though as I was using different size needles for a looser tension I had to knock off a few stitches and rows here and there. I’m grateful for finding a pattern I liked as it’s because I often don’t that I often end up making them up! Much gratitude for finding the lovely soft woolly cottony acrylicy mix with thicky thinny bits and variegated shades too as it's is pretty much my favourite sort of thing to knit with and whenever I get my hands on some they just won’t keep still…thanks too for all the memories of all the garments I’ve knitted over the years with different versions of this!
I've also finished sewing the skirt I was making - the brown needlecord one with the ribbon on the bottom - so have been grateful for a sense of achievement and productivity even though I've not been vigorous or active at all. I didn't even make it to choir last night and gave thanks that no one gave me a hard time over that...not even me! I am grateful I made it downstairs and back to check the post today though because a) someone had had a bit of a clear up and there wasn't quite so much debris everywhere and b) there was a letter from Kostas. He has problems with mail going astray too so it's always a bonus when our communications travel too and fro unhindered.
I give thanks that someone in a Tesco factory started making my tea because I did some chopping at lunchtime and that seems quite enough to me! I'd better go and finish it off though...

Now then now then

Well, round here that was a bit of a storm in a tea cup and I'm grateful really for little damage and no injuries but, human nature being so easily drawn to the drama of anticipation of crisis, I admit to a little disappointment after all the dire warnings too, don't you?

I was grateful the buses were running to get me to my hospital appointment though I would have been equally grateful if they hadn't been and I could have stayed in bed! Much gratitude for the stunning views of sea and countryside and moor on the journey though, the big ships sheltering in the bay and the rain always being somewhere else... Oh and for an interesting fellow passenger - a rather elderly gent with a sensible padded coat, crutch and a shopping trolley. The shopping trolley was in a striking animal print though, and his white hair had been dyed in splodges of purple and turquoise blue. I would have been even more grateful to know why...I think!

I give thanks for some developments in matters that have been seriously testing my aspiration to equanimity, but having finished the last of that yummy lentil stew I'm about to polish off the remaining apricot crumble and don't want to interrupt my gratitude for that by elaborating just now. Besides they're only developments. Everything is always in a state of change...by the time you have described a thing it's already become something else. I am grateful for knowing this right now...though now just has become then again!

Clocking off

So what did you do with your extra hour? Technically it happens when many of us are asleep but every year about this time I tediously remind people of a party I had on clock change night a long time ago when at two am we adjusted all the clocks and watches to one and celebrated one more hour of fun. I’m grateful I can remember what it was like to be well and befriended and dancing!
Nowadays sometimes I have to overhear other people having fun, or worse still having a loud and miserable time and I give thanks for the delights of Dreamgirls. No, I’ve not changed my persuasion; they are a sort of noise reducing earplug that actually fit my ears and thus reduce noise. I only recently discovered that there are many more sorts of earplugs than you would imagine from a trip to a small town chemist, made in many different shapes and materials, and that it’s worth keeping trying if you’ve not found the right ones for your ears as yet as here are even more sorts of those! I was very grateful to a company called Snorestore that supplies variety packs so you can sample a few, a bit pricey but money well spent if you find your dream plugs can then bulk buy them more cheaply elsewhere.
I’m grateful I was as bright as a Vettel this morning and got a few chores done though somehow I lost most of the afternoon to an extended nap and didn’t get the sewing I’d hoped to finish quite done before daylight and energy deserted me. Did get the braid on the hem though and I give thanks for that...
I'm grateful for hash browns and a freezer to keep them in so I don't have to eat them all at once...though I'd give it my best shot if I had to I'm sure! I'm grateful I've conceded defeat to technology today. I've had to copy and paste this from elsewhere and I know that means it will come out looking weird but I'm clocking off now and I don't care!

Logging on

Most of the last twenty four hours I've been semi horizontal so I give thanks for all the cooking and cleaning yesterday (yes, even the washing up!) that helped make this feasible and easy.

I give thanks for my compile-your-own TV library and some fascinating oblong entertainment including a documentary on Spencer Tunick's early work which I have admired for years. I'd love to see a newer one as it seems he's been photographing people in colour in Europe which seems all wrong somehow but I'd be prepared to give it a go... I give thanks that his name is made up of two garments anyway - that always seems strangely right!

The bit where I was most not horizontal was something to be most grateful for...accompanying Laura and Chumba on a short walk in the woods. I gave thanks being out in a bit of wind and rain as well as some sunshine. For some splashy puddles and squelchy mud, and particularly visiting a log pile I'd merely heard of before where there many kinds of shapes and sizes of wood - huge half trunks and cone laden branches and everything in between in piles, and heaps and stacks some on end, some lengthways, fragrant with resin, rich in texture, and in some cases personality...

I give thanks that my work here is done and I can go back to doing very little but listening to the weather and finishing the stew and crumble. Much gratitude for how exceedingly tasty they turned out to be...

Fair trade

Earlier in the week Laura suggested we go for a short walk this afternoon with her daughter's dog she's looking after for a few days. I was grateful at the time, and grateful this morning too when something came up and she changed the plan - after a busy week gadding about (ie. attending to medical matters mostly) I was happy to swap pause rather than paws.

Instead I've been inside giving thanks for the sight of the roughed up sea and the writhing trees and the sound of the roaring wind. I've been grateful for completing some important little tasks like making lentil stew and cleaning the loo and falling asleep on the sofa (grateful for those pause and rewind buttons again!) and for doing a bit of sewing and knitting though it does make my arms ache afterwards and typing rather hard...

Now I've eaten a bowl of stew I have to give thanks for one day experimenting with spices and coming up with paprika and garam masala as a combination, they really do taste good together! Gratitude too for the Co-op's Fair Trade rooibosch tea which to me tastes nicer than all the others, even the ones that have been around far longer. Pretty much all the Fair Trade products I've tried taste better than their presumably less fairly traded counterparts. Could it be they're produced with more love/willingness/enthusiasm? Who knows... My enthusiasm for cooking has run to a crumble but I think I'll either have the energy to eat it or wash up not both. I'm grateful the solution to this choice should not be hard...unless I've made a horrid crumble of course!

Washed up

You might have thought I'd have trouble sleeping through the night after dozing through the evening but I'm grateful to say this wasn't a problem at all...though getting up and getting going with the chores of the day was a bit of a struggle.

I had to go to the doctor's and I'm grateful I went via the recycling bins as it meant I got a lovely view of the grey skies and churning sea...just as pleasing to me as the blue and sparkly ones.

I'm grateful to Rachel for lending me a book about something only Rachel would lend me a book about, and for an extra long and thorough treatment to see me through the next couple of weeks without.

I give thanks for a jacket potato for my tea with cottage cheese and a bit of salad including leaves grown on my windowsill...and for a bit more enthusiasm about eating it than I've managed to muster the last couple of weeks! Not much washing up either...that's always something to be grateful for...

Taken not stirred

Today's appointment was at the hospital that's hardest to get to from here so I was grateful that Laura agreed to take me, and, as it's the slowest clinic in the county, to get refreshments from the League of Fiends during the second leg of the wait! I was grateful she had some business of her own in the area too so her morning wasn't completely wasted and that the dealings I had with the medical professionals were pleasant and quite helpful. 

There were gorgeous grateful making views of sea and river and countryside and moor but not any in places I could get photographs, though we did get a bit of shopping on the way home so I gave thanks for that. I gave thanks too that I'd left everything pretty much as it was after Laura painted a coat on the bathroom door yesterday so she could do another one today without me having to move stuff around because, lift or not, I was exhausted...some hospitals are so BIG! I was grateful that after she left I managed to get a quick snack before I fell soundly asleep because, though technically I've been awake again for a couple of hours, I've hardly been capable of stirring from the sofa let alone stirring a pan of food!

Singularly good

Yesterday was a good day in many ways so today I've still been giving thanks for that! For one thing, even though I was outdoors on several separate occasions when between buildings or buses, only a handful of raindrops fell on me...

I'm grateful I went to choir practice though, to be honest, I'm more grateful to be there than to go and come back which always seems a humungous effort. For the first few weeks I wondered if I'd made an embarrassing mistake. My voice was like a forgotten piano in an unused room, in need of polish and woodworm treatment never mind tuning, but last night I gave thanks when I began to make some sounds I was happy with in the songs I've sung a couple of times before. My sight reading is still rubbish and as the lyrics of these pieces are a little unusual and challenging I mean sight reading the words let alone the tune! I've accepted there's no way I will be ready to join in the upcoming performances in two or three weeks time. Public performance hadn't been the motive for joining anyway but when I realised the choir was taking part in the local Jazz Festival there was a bit when I wanted to just to be able to drop it into conversation (at every available opportunity no doubt). I was very grateful when it dawned on me I'd avoided a bit of unnecessary vanity by saying 'no'...

When I get in after rehearsal I'm too tired to go to bed straight away so I slump on the sofa a while goggling at the box. Last night there was an epic episode of Catfish to enjoy with a mug of instant Horlicks so there was much thanks for both of those.

I hear that we've been told that standing up is good for us...well, sitting down had been just great today! I give thanks for all the occasions I have, and to Laura for popping round to put a coat of paint on the bathroom door for me. She stood up to do it so my fatigue has been of benefit to someone...I'm very grateful for this!

Rain management

I had an appointment at a pain management clinic a couple of towns away today...I'm grateful the journey wasn't too much of one! Despite foul weather warnings, and indeed some foul weather, I managed to be outside in the OK bits though a good view or two was obscured by some heavy rain when I was on the bus!

I always give thanks when I don't need to resort to volunteer patient transport. No, my body doesn't work very well any more, no I don't have much in the way of material wealth, social standing or obvious emotional support but it doesn't mean I'm fair game as an object for pity or patronisation which can creep into a tone of voice very easily when well meaning people view my apparently small and insignificant life. Seriously guys, any kind of sense of security or a 'big life' you have that's wrapped up in anything you could lose in an earthquake (including loved ones) I envy not one jot! I was grateful for the uplifting chants of Imee Ooi, the peace inside my head...not having to talk about being ill, or the weather or the news...and that one of the bus drivers kept waiting for people who weren't at the stop in time - very kind!

Although I arrived at the hospital not expecting much I actually found it really astonishingly helpful and useful in several ways. After a chat the physio decided the pain/fatigue management techniques I'm evolving for myself through mindfulness and meditation practices are growing as finely and dandily as can be! This is, in fact, the kind of thing they advocate for all their patients (not just the ones with curly hair and joss sticks at home!) and my gratitude overflows that more people can thus have a chance to learn to live their lives properly whatever their health or lack of it. It's some of the best news I think I've ever had because it's good news for everyone. But there was good news for me personally too, because I discovered there is such a thing as seated Tai Chi, which I'd not realised before. Think I'll be taking up their recommendations on this!
http://www.sdhct.nhs.uk/aboutus/services/painservice/improvinghealthandfitness/4_taichi.php

I was very grateful the connections connected on the way home in time for a long rest in bed so I'd be able to get up again for tea and choir. And I give thanks I sincerely believe I can manage the rain this evening as well...whether it's true or not!

Short sift

I'm grateful I got up quite early (for me) today as this meant I had time for a morning nap! It did go on well past lunchtime though and, if I'd let it, would have continued most of the afternoon. The trick since has been to stay awake til bedtime and I've tried everything I can think of - opening the windows, clapping, singing, laughing, doing tasks I'd like to do rather than what should be done and I give thanks that I'm getting there as it's been a considerable challenge...every time I blink my eyelids are just little bit harder to raise!

Never mind, in the times when I gave up trying to sit up I discovered Twisted Sifter - a mine of fascinating information such as
http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/maps-that-will-help-you-make-sense-of-the-world/
examples of unusual artwork like
http://twistedsifter.com/2013/10/artistic-mom-turns-meals-into-masterpieces/
and classic 'Oh wow!' images http://twistedsifter.com/2013/03/most-perfectly-timed-photos-ever/
Lots and lots of gratitude for all of that.

Thanks too for Luke Friend singing 'on the back beach' on X Factor. No, I didn't watch the programme but I heard about the set and had to find it on YouTube. If you've been here you'll know...

the sound of wind and rain and pounding surf when you're snug indoors...

and low wispy cloud diffusing the bright moonlight last night so everything was lit with a dusky beigey colour rather than a moony blue one... Not sure if that makes any sense to you but it did to me at the time!

Social media

Hard work staying awake today...so I'm grateful for the bits I did and the bits I didn't too!

I'm grateful that via Facebook requests for assistance both Bob and I have been able to be helpful in practical matters today, sharing what we have with people we know that hadn't...

I'm grateful the cab driver knew where I was going last night as it wasn't the kind of evening to enjoy an explore or wander around. And I'm grateful tea and cake was involved even though I was at a film society - very civilised! My appetite is still a very feeble affair but it's amazing how a slice of tangy lemon cake can disappear when you're having a natter!

I'm grateful my new boots were comfy and practical and, I like to think, looked rather funky too! I loved my boots before we met, it happens that way sometimes...and sometimes the course of footwear true love is as bumpy as that of the human sort. I'd been searching for them in all kinds of places for many months...ebay, Office shoes, Clarks, Shoezone, Matalan, Moshulu...and more, but the only place they seemed to exist was in my imagination. Then one very rainy day when I could see very little I caught a glimpse of them in a very unlikely shop window and thought they must be just for display. I couldn't find them inside the shop which seemed to confirm it but I asked and was told to look in the children's section. And there they were...but not in my size. The helpful staff assured me they had had bigger ones and checked on their computer to see if they could get more in...and they couldn't, not even from another store. I asked if I could order them online myself and they said probably not as they seemed to be out of stock but I could try.

So I did, and they showed as in stock and I went all through the order process but I couldn't get the delivery details to go in. So I rang up and spoke to a customer services agent who couldn't either. She kept trying and I kept waiting...and then finally it all seemed to go through and she said I'd get a confirmation email and I hung up. A couple of days I read the email that had come through and it was actually one of those automated ones that say 'you left something in your basket' not 'thank you for your order'. No sign of confirmation of anything and nothing had gone out of my card account either. So I rang the company again and was assured all was in hand and soon they turned up...but after all the struggle to get them I was almost scared to go through the Cinderella moment in case looks were deceptive and they weren't the boots of my dreams after all...but they were! Would you like to see them or are you bored with the whole thing now? If you are, look away because I'm going to show you anyway! Mmmm...

It doesn't matter

Well, the summery weather of yesterday seems but a dream now but I'm grateful for that as walking down the hill again would have been out of the question today! I give thanks for a bit more domestic chore catch up and a bit of a meditate/snooze in the afternoon...all necessary to my wellbeing..

I was reading about about the inside of atoms earlier, which is something I like to do on a regular basis to remind myself that all the things we think matter are mostly nothing at all! I'm grateful for the peaceful feeling this gives me...

Gratitude too that I reckon I've knitted enough mini stockings and can move on to other things...like sewing them up and finishing making the display box I've started creating I guess! And that I've not enough braid left to trim the sleeves of the dress I'm making so that the sleeves will be easier to do, and it might get finished sooner. 

I give thanks that I've said I'll go out this evening as, though nice people and a nice way to spend a couple of hours, little appeals less right now, especially as it's raining buckets. Oh well, an opportunity to put my new boots through their paces. I give thanks for my new boots...

Oh and that reminds me: I forgot to say I gave thanks that some people understood what I was talking about the day before. Practising compassion and empathy is always to be commended, putting yourself in another's shoes and trying out a step or two if not the extra mile...but unless you've just literally trodden on their toes don't believe them if they tell you it's your fault their feet are hurting!

Quite contrary

Last night I watched a Rudetube compilation of 'web stars' and give especial thanks for the dancers who danced like no one was watching even though they knew that people were! The mixed crowd in the New York park and the six year old b-girl I had to rewind and watch again...as well as the flailing but accurate drummer who came top of the league. Isn't there something unspeakably moving about people moving together...even if they're all dancing in a completely different way? When I used to go to gigs I used to enjoy being part of the communal energy of the dancers as much as listening to the music that made us! Of course making music together pretty damn amazing too...with instruments or voices or both. Once in a while we humans actually get it right...for which I'm truly grateful!

I give thanks for a gloriously warm and sunny day...part of the master plan as I really wanted to use my legs a little, and as my appetite is still off and on I thought that if I took a snack to the cafe and got a takeaway tea I would eat the snack looking at the sea without really realising! It worked, and I give thanks for the gloriously warm and sunny people I met as well, all keen to chat about our meteorological good fortune. I took a few photos but haven't uploaded them yet so this is a 'library picture'. It looked much the same today only the tide was in and the clouds were in a different place!

I give thanks for sight of a teenage girl collecting cockle shells and lining metres of them up on the flat concrete ledge at the base of the sea wall, for a great chat and acupuncture session and a gift of that basil tofu from Rachel. It creates states tofu normally doesn't...such as desire to eat it!

I give thanks that the last of my stew is heating up and my work here is done for another day as I feel so dozy if I don't eat it soon I may fall asleep with my head in the bowl!

In a stew

Even though the moon's not full yet it's been very bright in the deepening blue of the evening sky, and silvering the sea after dark...so I've been giving thanks for that!

I give thanks for making some 'plain stew' for my tea last night. It's very restorative so a sort of vegetarian version of chicken soup maybe, though I eat it when I'm well as well! It's basically just potato and onion and carrot and leek, some herbs and pepper and some vegetable stock (vegetable cooking water not cubes or granules). If I have celery and/or parsnip I add those, maybe a little tomato puree...so yes, very plain though when it's not part of a 'light diet' there might be quorn or beans or dumplings or lashings of cheese. But on it's own with a chunk of buttered bread is very good too...

I also had one of my random cramp attacks in the evening. They are painful but kind of funny too especially when they break out in different parts of my body and cause a strange kind of dance and lots of squawking! Yesterday my left hand and right leg were affected at the same time...which made me rather grateful I don't drive a car!

Remember what I was remembering in my last post - about when I'm cross or upset it's my own fault? ('Remember?' shouted Outraged of Tunbridge Wells 'How could I forget this ludicrous idea you're foisting on the nation?) Well, later it dawned on me that when other people are up in arms or on my case it must be their fault too. That was a bit of an epiphany for which I gave much gratitude. No, actually scrub that...this was a major epiphany for which I am still giving gratitude! I have honestly spent most of my life believing that when I'm not happy about something someone else has said and done I must try harder...and when someone else isn't happy with what I've said and done I must try harder. I mean obviously it would help existence if everyone tried harder in lots of ways but we can only sort ourselves out not other people...

Anyway, I think I've thought of something I'd like for tea today and I've made it and I'm grateful for that...so I'm off to prove the pudding...

Making it up as you go around

I give thanks for a slight return of appetite. There's some improvement to be made yet but, although, I've not actually weighed myself (for several years), I reckon I could probably lose a pound of flesh or two before blowing away in the breeze...

I give thanks for the bright and sunny afternoon allowing the south facing windows to be opened a while...and gratitude too for thus hearing Happy Birthday being sung to someone nearby.

I give thanks for a big think about some situations that have been somewhat stressing me the last few months and remembering that when someone does or says things that make you cross or upset, then the person to blame... is you! How could I forget this? Duh!

I give thanks for the witty (and often true) quips of Germaine Greer, discovered on line during 'choir homework' ie. listening to some downloads of the songs based on women's interviews. I've always had a deep aversion to suggestions that start 'You ought to...' and descriptive nouns that end in '-ist' so I'd not had the pleasure of these before.

I give thanks for having some fun with doily art (sorry, couldn't resist!) over the last few days. You just make a magic ring and make it up as you go around. Check out the ghetto 'soft grip' on the crochet hook too...made from some draft excluder and masking tape. Inspiration may appear in all manner of designs...

Tangled web

First gratitude of the day goes to being up (if not yet dressed) in the morning (just!). And also for just washing my hair which has been bedheading nicely over the last few days…if you like that kind of thing!

I’m grateful I booked a cab last week to take me to the library for the craft group as I’ve a parcel to go to the parcel pick up place nearby and, though I’m still very weak and wan, sitting knitting in a warm place while someone brings you a cup of tea sounds better than being at home! Besides, it’s so easy when you’re not feeling very well to sit about thinking about how not very well you feel – a tremendous waste of however well you might be!

Do you remember the jumper I knitted at the beginning of the year with chevron stripes of different toning yarns? Well, I want to make another along similar lines and have collected six or seven different yarns that blend nicely. Some were odds and ends I had lying around but I discovered today looking for more of the four new ones I bought the other day…that they are all actually discontinued. I bought them in two different shops and staff in neither of them mentioned this crucial fact. Perhaps they didn’t know? So I’m particularly grateful that I haven’t started this project yet! As I can’t imagine when I’ll be going to the wool shops again, and they might not have any more of what I bought before, I’ve been tracking down what I can on line…and it seems I’d have to buy them from four different suppliers thus racking up hefty postage charges. Oh well, what will be will be… it may turn out to be a garment of many many colours!

I give thanks I wrote the above before I went out and that I said I’d not go to choir tonight as I think when my tea’s gone down I’ll be winding down for the day. It was only a little tea so it shouldn’t take long, and I didn’t get too wound up so hopefully that shouldn’t take long either!

Finger foods

Yay, I got up this afternoon! Much gratitude for that!

I give thanks for finding replacement indoor mini gas can heater for my bathroom on line last week so I could take a long soak without getting chilled. Of course last week I was paddling in the sea on a gloriously hot day so I'm grateful for the premonition of imminent need!

Gratitude for a few little jobs done such as catching up with the mysterious amount of washing up created considering the lack of eating and drinking the last couple of days, and for a load of laundry on. Particular thanks too for thinking of something I'd like to eat apart from fingers (shortbread or fish) and making rice pudding in the slow cooker. And for intermittently knitting sample pieces for the jumper I have in mind to begin making for myself when some other craft tasks are complete. This was an ideal occupation as you do a bit and then unpick and try something else so you're not aiming for any obvious achievement or amount of work produced...

Better in than out

Hmm, let me see...

I'm grateful I have a bed in the living room and that, though I had plans to get up and dressed, there was no reason why I couldn't stay in it all day when I couldn't stay awake long enough to do so. I'm grateful for healing sleep, and for my trusty bucket for staying by my side throughout.

I give thanks for having a TV...and a remote control with pause, rewind and mute buttons.

I give thanks for some pomegranate and raspberry pressé encouraging me to move on from sipping water...and for a whole mug of tea and three fish fingers this evening...

I give thanks for the pink sky visible through the trees, and that tomorrow I'm bound to feel better!

Better out than in

I give thanks for pretty clouds yesterday evening giving way to a clear and starry sky.

Gratitude too for a kindly passing neighbour and his daughter stopping to chat to me until my taxi came so I didn't have to wait in the dark on my own, and for a great comment from a women I'd not met before who said she sang in three different local choirs...I'd not seen her at the one I go to and when I mentioned it's name she said 'Oh no, they're too weird!' Classic foot in mouth perhaps but also highlighting one of the reasons I wanted to join! Great thanks for living somewhere where a 'weird' choir practices just down the road...

For a most enjoyable night, lots of laughter...and jaw dropped astonishment at our hastily assembled and lightweight team beating all but the full contingent of in house quizzers in a variety of rounds including guessing the flavour of the crisps and putting Blue Peter presenters in order of appearance, as well as more regular general knowledge questions. I'd hoped I might put Laura off inviting me to quizzes once and for all demonstrating my lack of aptitude but methinks I may have failed in this endeavour.

Today I've been rather poorly...and nothing stronger than decaff cappuccino my lips, so it's not what you might be thinking but I've been flat out on the sofa sipping mint green tea and sleeping the hours away. I give thanks for plain biscuits which are all my nursemaid self could be bothered to provide for my invalid self (who proved quite ungrateful anyway!) and for not giving a whatever about the chores or even the creative projects, an attitude which I know many can manage without any bodily malfunction but it takes quite a bit to make me this laissez faire.

Charity

Today I'm grateful I slept better last night...
and that Jenny came to do some vacuuming because she can do so much more so much more quickly than me!

I'm grateful that I bought a Big Issue because the seller looked cold and sad but was warmly smiley and grateful when I had done...

I'm grateful for great acupuncture and chit chat with Rachel
and for a cup of  hot chocolate by the sea afterwards...

I'm grateful that I put my tea in the slow cooker before I left
and that I had a nap when I came in...

I'm grateful that I said I'd go to a quiz night tonight because I really don't feel like it and it's for charity and I should!

Round about here

Last night I gave thanks for the sleep I had, despite disturbances from various pains...ones in my body, ones with equipment malfunction and ones in the next street coming home noisily in the early morning! I had great dreams in the in between times...such as going to a big party on a boat with the people I met on the ORCA trip and seeing manta rays flying out of the water, so I was grateful for those too.

I give thanks for Cawston apple and ginger juice...very tasty and even though I think they spell it differently it always reminds me of Midsomer Murders too!

And I'm grateful for the way our country works. No, it's not a typo...it's just something I was thinking about in the awake times last night. We tend to be so quick to share our complaints about the infrastructure and services and transport systems, privatised and otherwise, and I'm certainly not saying some of it's not broke and in some need of fixing, but I genuinely give thanks for all the times that we get treatment for an ailment, a package or a bus arrives on time or our rubbish gets taken away...

Today I was also grateful that I managed to get an appointment for a doctor to look in my ears. It happened to be at the same time as the appointment to have my hair trimmed, which was clearly the less important of the two but the financially the most ouchy to decline with just 90 mins notice, so I was even more grateful when Chris said she wouldn't charge me as I was 'poorly'. I was almost ungrateful when the doctor ushered me in bang on the dot as I'd been listening to the end of an fascinating play whilst looking at a interesting knitting magazine which was possibly the best waiting room experience ever! But the consultation was short and to the point and I was back out on the pavement again so soon I popped round the corner to see if they'd filled my slot at the salon...and they hadn't and fitted me back in very graciously and kindly for which I gave great thanks again...

Oh, and for the almost airbrushed looking sea and clouds this morning. I imagined if I rested the camera on the window frame the horizon would be level. Clearly this was not the case!

Nothing ventured

I've given thanks for nothing today. I don't mean I've not been grateful, but I've been grateful for a very quiet inactive day passed mainly in a fog of exhaustion. I've been grateful the neighbourhood's been pretty quiet too and that the sun came out but went back in...

Getting out and about two days in a row is always a bit of a challenge so I've been very grateful there's not been much needs doing around the place here, and I could snoozily enjoy memories of such pleasant challenges to rise to before. I've also given thanks I've finished a couple more mini stockings, which it seemed very odd to be knitting yesterday - twenty four hours after eating ice cream on the beach. Christmas and summer don't usually collide like that in this hemisphere. I've been grateful for Mr Tesco for doing so much catering in the last few hours too!

Oh and I remembered this from yesterday afternoon in town on the way to the taxi rank - a Greenpeace sign you up person approached me and I said what I usually do ie. that I've had to stop people on the street for work myself so I knew what it was like but sorry, I didn't want to commit myself to a regular bankly deduction. Then I crossed the road and another Greenpeace person approached. She could see the 'you're having a laugh' expression forming on my face so she quickly explained she knew her colleague had tried her luck on the other side and she just wanted to know where I'd got my bag from!

Compartment store

Yay, I give thanks for finally unpacking the shopping from Friday! A lot of it was chocolate from those bargain shelves in Smiths and a lot of that was to put by for stocking fillers and Christmas treats. I give thanks that I can compartmentalise and, hide away small hoards of things like this from myself. In fact, when I was wondering where to put them I remembered I’d bought some other bits and ‘put them by’ but had blanked out the memory of where so I didn’t think of them and drool! All are safely gathered in to an out of way corner now…

I give thanks that this little chest of drawers has finally been given a new lease of life. In a former incarnation some fifteen or so years ago it came free from a mail order company and though it was not very pretty to look at it (and I’d started trying to change that by attempting to remove some well glued on but poorly designed flower decoration) it was useful and got used. Then when I came down south it was packed away into a box that survived many moves in and out of temporary homes, until I found a ‘permanent’ one. Then I was told I didn’t have long to live and it was one of the things I gave away to someone I thought might appreciate it before my home was cleared. In this case it was Laura as she sews and the drawers are just the right size for reels of Guterman thread. She didn’t do anything with it, and when I was told that I probably wasn’t going to die very soon after all and started sewing again, she asked if I’d like it back. I said yes, but then, when her daughter was out of work and in need of distraction, I thought she might like to do it up as a project and bought decorative paper to go with some leftover paint. She made a start and got as far as a coat of undercoat and then found a job and a new boyfriend and lost interest. So Laura brought it back to me and I managed a few more coats of paint, and then I gave it back to her and she put the paper on and varnished it...all this taking place over two or three years you understand! Many hands making slow but pretty work

I give thanks that a delivery driver who was supposed to ring my phone on arrival didn’t…as I was on the doorstep at the time and wouldn’t have been able to answer it, and that my little local chemist and their supplier managed to process a prescription sent to them by mistake that a specialist company would normally have dealt with. This involved cutting twenty things by hand that a machine would usually do, so some unknown blister fingered patient worker gets special gratitude! I give thanks that no one from the craft group who’d taken a stocking pattern past week had tried it yet so I could explain that the stitch count was wrong and that a nimble fingered soul managed to untangle some fluffy wool that defeated mine.

The point of view

A change isn't always as good as a rest...and it was definitely a rest that I needed today, but the weather was so frabjously gorgeous I just couldn't stand to stay indoors, so I was grateful I didn't listen to common sense or my aches and pains. Besides it was Mr and Mrs Eastcliff's ruby wedding anniversary and it would have been rude not to go and buy an ice-cream from them! I give thanks that they'd put a selection of photos of themselves and family from over the years on a board outside the cafe for the entertainment of the customers...really rather moving too...

I give thanks for the stunning views around here, that give the spirit pleasure even when the body complains...and for the little miracle that is a little digital camera so that you can snap away until you capture something that captures the feeling of the day. I#m grateful for the other things you cannot capture too (well, not unless you film strangers which would be odd if not actually illegal!), like two generations of menfolk setting up makeshift cricket stumps and playing a few balls before abandoning the game as their young spaniel kept fielding the ball, but refusing to bring it back.

Gratitude also for taking off my shoes and going for a paddle, that fatigue drove me home before my unoiled skin got burnt and that I'd not put the washing on before I left as I managed to pour almost as much refreshment down my clothes as down my throat! I give thanks that I'd nothing scheduled for when I got back apart from putting the washing on, putting the dinner on and writing my blog because apart from these things I've mostly been asleep...

Stitch and bitch

Last night I gave thanks that I'd chosen to sleep in the living room rather than the bedroom as a late night slanging match broke out between a drunk in the gardens and junkies without junk upstairs and, though everyone in the vicinity could hear pretty much everything that was said, it was preferable to be out of the direct line of verbal fire. And I'm grateful it was just verbal fire, as one of the bones of contention was the waste and rubbish hurled around by the top flat tenants who seem to think if they shout at anyone who asks them not to it doesn't really happen. Stigma of the dump perhaps? Refusing to acknowledge responsibility? That reminds me I give thanks for Dave Lamb and Alex Vane, or whoever writes their scripts if it's not them...pundamentally perfect!

I've been grateful for the warm and sunny weather, and that patchy cloud built up in the afternoon so that I didn't feel too miserable about being too tired to go out. I'm grateful for remembering I took some photos from the bus yesterday and that (despite being a bit blurry as you might expect through glass on a moving vehicle) I captured one of my favourite local views. I'm grateful for getting some bits of this and that done between the bits of nothing at all, including a bit of sewing that isn't hard in itself but has many opportunities to go awry, and that it only went awry a little bit!

Bright and shiny

Woke up this morning before it was light and couldn’t get back to sleep for a long while…I was even thinking of actually getting up and getting on with something, when I fell soundly, deeply asleep again and stayed so til late morning. So, when I was finally conscious enough to start the day properly I caught sight of myself in the hall mirror and thought ‘Wow, I look really different…kind of younger and prettier…why?’ Then I realised the dark circles under my eyes were gone. So I give thanks for what was, I suppose, one of the random temporary after effects of acupuncture. You never know what they might be, last week my tinnitus disappeared for a few days and I’d be sitting there with my head cocked listening for it as if maybe it was just out of earshot.  Very strange!

I give thanks for the bright and shiny day which encouraged me, eventually, to go out and get some yarn and fabric I saw last week and wasn’t sure about…until I was home and they were a bus ride away. It can be hard for a crafty minded person not to hoard so I give thanks for the initial restraint.  Was in magpie mode today though and came back with all sorts of irresistible items, though all having in common being light on the purse strings and bag handles of course…

I give thanks for the cheerful and patient bus driver, the pretty views on the journey and the Imee Ooi music on my headphones; for restorative tea and savoury scone in a bustling but calm café, for a quiet flat evening (too tired even to unpack the shopping!); for left over cheesey, hazelnutty thing from last night so I only needed to heat it up and slap some salad things on a plate and for persuading my internet to work again after it went AWOL for a while.

Thanks for the memories

I'm really grateful that after a bright start the wind and the rain became quite ferocious again as, although I kept telling myself I wanted to go on a bus ride to a wool shop and a fabric shop before acupuncture, actually all I really wanted was to be home with the materials, so I was happy to have a reason to give up on that plan.

I give thanks for the low cloud hanging onto the hillside behind the terrace as it creates the impression there might be a mountain up there and I'm partial to the view of a mountain so I like to pretend there's one behind the fog!

That brief feeling of feeling OK yesterday was all gone by bedtime but I was grateful for a) the memory and b) the reminder that it is possible to feel more well than I do lately, and it's possible to do more when I do...

I was also grateful when I couldn't get a taxi at the time I wanted to as what energy I do have became suddenly suitably focused and I abandoned the intention to shower and wash my hair because I was about to get soaked anyway and quickly through together some tea for later instead...

And I gave thanks that it didn't rain all the time that I was out...in fact for a while at the end the sun came out so I dried off a little before I came home and everyone smiled a bit more!

And now for something

Those Hairy Bikers have never really done it for me but yesterday when I sat down with my supper I turned the T​V on and they were in Norway and I was enthralled by the stunning scenery and the delicious sounding traditional breads, buns, pastries and biscuits they discovered. Oh and the brown cheese! I've always wanted to go there for the fjords...now I want to go for the food too! Much thanks for happening upon that...

Also for this item about an unusual art project
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-24341447

For being patient with a telesales person who didn't understand a) what a database was and b) why I couldn't tell him where the person who used to have my phone number might be!

For the sound of the torrential rain and it being warm enough to have the windows open to listen properly...

To Laura for coming to help with a few jobs around the place, and telling me to look up and listen to a Tuareg rock band...which I did and enjoyed exceedingly!

For suddenly feeling less fatigued around lunchtime...no idea how or why, or of course I'd make it happen on demand, but very pleasant nonetheless. Got a few things done that didn't involve sitting still and am exhausted this evening but that's completely different!

The pain of gain

A 'footnote': If you tried this pattern yesterday you may have noticed the end of row stitch numbers were wrong. I added them at the last minute before printing and didn't check my sums! The instructions are fine though so here they are again and, in case you were thinking of making some for anyone who might think the others too girly, I've done a Dennis the Menace version - cast on in red and then work two rows black, two rows red all the way through...

MINI STOCKINGS

Cast on 15 sts in DK yarn and knit 4 rows (garter stitch)

Knit and purl next 9 alternate rows (stocking stitch)

14^th row knit 5, knit into back and front of next 4 sts, knit 6 (19 sts)

15^th row knit

16^th row knit 7, knit into back and front of next 4 sts, knit 8 (23 sts)

17^th row knit

18^th row knit 2, knit 2 together, knit 15, knit 2 together, knit 2 (21 sts)

19^th row knit

20^th row knit 2, knit 2 together, knit 4, knit 2 together, knit 1, knit 2 together, knit 4, knit 2 together, knit 2. Cast off remaining 17 sts

Hints and tips: I use 5mm needles for these, actually children's mini plastic ones as they are small and light like the project. If you want to put a crochet loop on them leave a long end when you cast on or join in the second colour.

OK, now gratitudes for the day... 

To Rachel for gently nagging me to include patterns and recipes! This is quite a struggle for me as I do tend to keep all that stuff in my head where it never needs to be measured or counted...it just is!

To my legs for carrying me part way down the hill and back for choir practice yesterday evening. Hips don't lie (as the song says) and mine are saying they are going to give me a real hard time about ignoring their need for sofa time of an evening, but I'm very grateful they've not persuaded my knees to fully join in the protest yet. Upper limbs have been complaining about the knitting though and my left hand going into spasm as it does when it's tired, forming a frantic V-sign which makes me chuckle even though it hurts so I'm grateful for that too!

I'm grateful I worked out where I knew another singer from...it took a while, but then it's been a while - we worked in the same place a few miles away around the turn of the century though our paths didn't cross very often. I'm grateful to everyone there for making me feel so welcome. It's hard work getting there and back and the works themselves are quite challenging but I'm really appreciating the experience.

I'm grateful for a day largely in the recovery position! For all the things I have recorded to watch on TV so I don't have to watch what's broadcast in the daytime schedules, and for murky wet weather that makes snuggling up on the sofa feel even more welcome. I'm grateful that in instalments over the last couple of days I've got some lentil and sweet potato stew to stew in the slow cooker...and that it smells rather tasty too!